...Board members said that they were impressed by the safeguards the government has built into the NSA’s monitoring of phone calls and computer transmissions, and that they wished the administration could tell the public more about them to ease distrust....

"If the American public, especially civil libertarians like myself, could be more informed about how careful the government is to protect our privacy while still protecting us from attacks, we’d be more reassured," said Lanny Davis, a former Clinton White House lawyer...

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Mainstream media engaged in running gun-battle with U.S. Forces

Has there ever been a time in American history that the Department of Defense (or its predecessor, the War Department) was forced to mount "information operations" against the mainstream media?

Not until recently, that much is certain.

Over the course of the last five weeks, the DOD has been forced to respond to a variety of fabrications and exaggerations excreted by MSM outlets. And I'm sure you can guess the worst offender. No, it's not the Huntington Herald-Dispatch. It's the New York Times: the Pravda to the DNC's Politburo; and a veritable cornucopia of terrorist talking-points.

Over the last several weeks, the DOD has been forced into a running scribe-battle with the Times, including (but not limited to) the following articles:

Maybe the DOD could execute a "phased redeployment" of its For the Record authors so we could devote more resources to fighting the war on terror.

I strongly encourage all bloggers to link to the DOD's For the Record anti-disinformation website, designed exclusively to defeat the enemy's mainstream media's information warfare and psychological operations programs.

Monday, November 27, 2006

What do you do with 50,000 DVDs? An Inconvenient Truth

The invaluable Larwyn writes to tell us that Newbusters' Noel Sheppard has discovered an inconvenient truth. Al Gore can't give away the DVD version of his hysteria-generating movie*.

[Gore] wanted to donate 50,000 DVD copies of the schlockumentary to the National Science Teachers Association so that educators around the country could brainwash America’s youth with Gore’s junk science. Thankfully, the NSTA said, "No Thanks"... they saw "little, if any, benefit to NSTA or its members’ in accepting the free DVDs."

So... the first question that popped into my silly little head: what does Al Gore do with 50,000 DVDs?

Decorative Coasters: nothing says the holidays like Truth-Coasters™, which gently remind guests that you care deeply about the environment and fine Pilsner beers.

Kung Fu throwing discs: for budding martial artists, Goreekin™ throwing discs are easy to throw and mega-deadly. For added performance, simply cut star points into the disc using the included template!

Pet for urban environments: put a DVD on a leash and simply drag it along as you walk... makes the perfect eco-friendly pet. Plus, it's great exercise!

Alien invasion: sneak out into a field late one night. Arrange a couple of thousand discs in a fractal-style pattern. Later, take pictures of the field from a helicopter. Blame aliens using the following storyline. Humans have been poor stewards of the Earth, which has prompted interest in our planet by alien cultures, who wish to rescue the environment.

Eco-friendly solar cooker: save on energy with a TipperHomemaker™ Solar Oven - requires only five Truth DVDs and you can save up to $425 in energy bills per year (actual savings may vary).

Assphalt™ Eco-Pavement: grind DVDs into a fine powder, mix with asphalt, and create a recycler's favorite road surface! Simple, fast, and has not (thus far) been proven toxic to humans.

That only leaves about 18,000 DVDs, so your suggestions are appreciated!

Sunday, November 26, 2006

2006 Terrorcrat All-Star Cards: Collect 'em all!

Few collectibles hold the promise of a dramatic increase in value. The Terrorcrat All-Star trading cards are no exception, but that shouldn't stop you from mortgaging the house and selling the cat to acquire as many as you can...

While serving as a Federal Judge in Florida, Hastings was caught "shaking down defendants" by the FBI and subsequently convicted and impeached for conspiring to obtain $150,000 from an FBI informant. For receiving a last-minute pardon from Bill Clinton in 2001 and having the gall to run for Congress... for allowing himself to run for House Intelligence Committee Chairman, Rep. Alcee Hastings -- a convicted and impeached former Federal Judge -- is a 2006 Terrorcrat All-Star! Thank heavens the Democrats have eradicated the 'culture of corruption' from Washington.

Congratulations to all of our winners. And, remember, there's no telling what these cards will be worth in the future. If things go well, you may be able to trade all three for a loaded Pez Dispenser and a bottle of A-1 Steak Sauce.

The Best of Rush Limbaugh at the Warner Theater

...You won't believe this. I haven't told this story much. Some time ago, I found myself in an elevator. It was in New York, and it was at a wedding. It was in Brooklyn, and I'm getting in the elevator to leave. It's been a long night, and just as the door is about to close, somebody puts their hand in the elevator doors that close, and it's Hillary Clinton. (laughter) She's senator at this time. She is a senator. and she gets in the elevator. She sees me, and she hits the stop button on the elevator. (laughter) She said, "I don't believe this. Do you know how long it's been since I have felt like a real woman?" (laughter)

I didn't say anything, but I was thinking, "Yeah." (laughter)

She said, "Would you make me feel like a real woman?"

I said, "Certainly." So I took off all my clothes and I put them on the floor of the elevator, and I said, "Now fold them..."

[On visiting with the troops] ...one of the guys as we were getting around to leave said, "Gosh, I wish you would have been here five minutes sooner."

"Really? Why?"

"Senator Kerry was here." (laughter) This is a guy who just lost two legs, and he's laughing to me about Senator Kerry.

I said, "Kerry was here? What did he do?"

"He just came in and walked around."

"Did he say anything to you?"

"No, he didn't say much of anything to anybody, but I wish he would have said something to me."

I said, "Why?"

He said, "So I could tell him: 'Senator, I'm too stupid to understand what you just said.'"

(wild applause)

That is a true story...

[On the mainstream media] Now, they succeeded to the extent that the people who voted against Republicans voted against Iraq. They succeeded, but look what it took. Now, this is not consolation. In the old days, once Cronkite decided he'd had it with the Vietnam War, it took one broadcast, and that was it. That turned the public -- and that broadcast, by the way, LBJ said, "Well, I've lost Cronkite; I've lost the country. I'm going back to Texas." They don't have that kind of power anymore. It took them three years of the most offensive, dreadful stories every night on the news -- and it didn't take much. A 20-second sound bite here followed by a stand-up report there; 30 seconds over here of an IED going off or a burning car. Occasionally you pepper it with a story of an American soldier raping innocent Iraqis. People, believe it or not -- and you can tell who watches the nightly news, ABC, CBS, and NBC -- and I call them now ABS, NBS, and CBS, and MSDNC

[On Hillary] She subordinated herself to that guy from Arkansas who turned out to show total disrespect for her, humiliated her, embarrassed her, and she still hung on. Don't you think she deserves the White House on her own? And that's it, folks, because if you look at what she's done, there's nothing to argue. I saw a blog post from 2003 from some guy who worked -- a liberal Democrat, admitted liberal Democrat, worked -- in the Clinton White House on health care, he wrote this in 2003, said, "It was a disaster in every which way possible. She didn't have any of the political or managerial skills. Keep her as far away from the White House as possible." This is somebody that worked with her on the team. I don't know if he's still alive. (laughter and applause)

[On Conservatism] Conservatism is tough to stand up for in a lot of places because it's so reviled and impugned, misreported. People say we gotta get back to the basics of conservatism. What are they? One thing about conservatism to me: Conservatism is the ultimate in compassion and respect from one person to another. Liberalism... (applause) Everything about conservatism derives from that, be it economic, be it social. Everything derives from that, and yet we conservatives are tarred and feathered as extremists, racists, sexists, bigoted, hateful homophobes. What do we want? We want the best country that we can have, and we want it for our children and grandchildren -- and how does that happen?

We want people to have the greatest opportunity for prosperity using their own ambition and their own desire to learn or whatever they have to do to succeed. That's how you get a great country: great people, ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Great countries don't come from laws. (applause) They don't come from public policy. They don't come from programs. It's the people who make the country work; it's people who make an economy work...

[On Wal-Mart] Liberals hate Wal-Mart, one of the most successful American businesses. You look at their companies on the target list: ExxonMobil, Big Drug, Big Tobacco, Big Fat Food now, Big Trans-fat, all these. Look at their enemies list, and it is a roster of successful corporate circumstances that have created wealth and jobs, Wal-Mart specifically. If things were as they appear, liberals would love Wal-Mart, because liberals love the little guy. Liberals think that most people are little guys. They don't earn much; they don't have a chance to earn much; why, they need the minimum wage to be able to exist; they can't afford health care; they can't afford a new car; they can't afford a flat-screen TV; they can't afford dog food and drugs.

Now all of a sudden comes Wal-Mart, and they can afford all that. (laughter) You don't think that makes liberals mad? (applause) Because it's government programs that are supposed to provide that. Government programs are supposed to be where people look to find a chance for economic prosperity to save a few bucks. They're supposed to get up, find whatever direction the nation's capital is and kind of do one of these things. Instead they're going to Wal-Mart. But not for long. Because working with the unions, liberal Democrats will do their best to punish Wal-Mart. You know, Wal-Mart's really made 'em mad now. They're having a price war with Target at Christmas. Those prices are already too low for liberals to compete with, but now they're cutting them even more.

[On federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research and the controversial Michael J. Fox ads] The equivalent would be -- you know, I'm deaf. I have a cochlear implant. If I take this hearing piece off, I am a hundred percent deaf. I hear nothing. Imagine me doing a commercial saying, "Hi. I'm Rush Limbaugh. I'm deaf. I don't like being deaf. I want to be cured. People tell me that the embryos from babies in the womb could cure my hearing. So I want to kill babies in the womb so I can hear again. Please vote for candidate X, because the other candidate won't do it." Do you think I would be applauded as somebody trying to advance medical science to help the hearing? That was the essence of these ads that ran. They were a little bit more cleverly worded, but any time you put in there that somebody wants to criminalize research or somebody doesn't want you to get well because he's a Republican?

Saturday, November 25, 2006

Richard Feynman: "...To Protect Civilization..."

This brief, 40 minute interview with Dr. Richard Feynman was uploaded for students of NSIT in India. The documentary, entitled The Pleasure of Finding Things Out, is fascinating. It describes how the Nobel Laureate became captivated with physics, mathematics, and science -- at an early age -- through his Father's gentle instruction.

Feynman also describes how, early in his career, he was invited to participate in the Manhattan Project during World War II. The effort was spurred by scientists' fears that Nazi Germany was also beginning to construct atomic weapons. Feynman's angst over opening a Pandora's box capable of unimaginable destruction is palpable.

...My first reaction was, well, I didn’t want to get interrupted in my normal work to do this odd job. There was also the problem, of course, of any moral thing involving war. I wouldn’t have much to do with that, but it kinda scared me when I realized what the weapon would be, and that since it might be possible, it must be possible. There was nothing that I knew that indicated that if we could do it they couldn’t do it, and therefore it was very important to try to cooperate...

...I had a very strong reaction... after the war... I remember being in New York with my Mother in a restaurant... right after, immediately after [the atomic bomb had been dropped]... and thinking about New York. And I knew how big the bomb in Hiroshima was and how big an area it covered and so on. And I realized from where we were on 59th Street... if you dropped one on 34th Street, it would spread all the way out here and all these people would be killed...

...and it wasn't only one bomb available, it was easy to continue to make them. And, therefore, things were sort of doomed. Because, already, it appeared to me, very early, that -- earlier than others, who were more optimistic -- that [given] international relations and the way people were behaving, it was no different than it had ever been before. It was just going to go out the same way... and I was sure therefore that it was going to be used very soon.

Friday, November 24, 2006

2006 Turkey-of-the-Year Awards

As I come down off a tryptophan bender, the result of eating far more than the recommended amount of turkey, I happened to remember something. I'd forgotten to post my annual Turkey-of-the-Year awards! Yes, it's true. I'd completely neglected the top five list recognizing buffoonery in all its magnificent glory! As you may recall, the Turkey-of-the-Year awards have been appearing on this website since 1953 (the very early days of the Internet, to be sure) when Nikita Kruschev was the winner.

Thus, without further ado, the top five candidates for the 2006 Turkey-of-the-Year Award:

#5 - MSDNC commentator Keith Olbermann, who pilloried Fox News, the Rethuglican Party, President Bush, Karl Rove, and the concept of Global Cooling in a brilliant soliloquy entitled, "A Clockwork Strawberry." There's a fine line between genius and insanity, and that line is the skin-fold on Olbermann's neck.

#4 - PMSBC commentator Lawrence O'Donnell, the man who never lets logic get in the way of bluster. But there's a simple reason O'Donnell won't let opposing viewpoints get heard: his positions have no merit on their own. Screaming, yelling, whining, and -- in general -- talking-over opponents can't disguise the fact that O'Donnell has been consistently wrong about U.S. military veterans, Karl Rove's incipient PlameGate indictment, how "chicken-hawks" shouldn't discuss military matters, and a myriad other off-kilter arguments. Does O'Donnell really want the U.S. Armed Forces calling all the signals? After all, active-duty forces vote Republican at about a 70% clip and don't much care for pacifism in the face of violence. Of course not. But O'Donnell can't think that far ahead. He's inhaling deeply, preparing for another temper tantrum.

#2 - Jimmy Carter, America's worst president in history (by a significant margin), is an apologist for terrorists, dictators, and other anti-American thugs. To call Carter a disgrace is a mortal insult to real disgraces such as O.J. Simpson.

And #1, our 2006 Turkey-of-the-Year? It's obvious: Iran's proxy president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad. This turkey, a despotic nutcase with messianic delusions, has promised to destroy the United States, the U.K., and Israel (not necessarily in that order). Here's hoping this turkey gets stuffed: the sooner the better.

Thursday, November 23, 2006

The Shining Wit and Wisdom of Bill Maher

Through an exclusive cross-posting agreement with The Stuffington Roast, we are pleased to present Bill Maher's latest blog post. Please. Don't gush. You can thank us later.

Republicans = Scientologists, Democrats = Rilly, Rilly CoolOne aspect of Scientology, as explained to me by my good friend Tom Cruise, is to go off on anyone dissing Dianetics. And by go off, I mean a willingness to engage in all kinds of evil stuff. Such as launching into verbal tirades on Oprah. And getting really snooty at big Hollywood parties, like the ones I attend on an all-too-frequent basis.

I'm not sure how this applies to Rebublicans, but suffice it to say that members of the GOP are evil. Pretty much all of Hollywood feels that way. At least, that's what I've picked up so far from talking to lots of smart folks like Babs Streisand, Michael Moore, and Susan Sarandon. Need some examples?

When an election is close, Republicans graciously concede instead of whining, seething, and demanding recounts! Where's the fun in that? The GOP takes all of the emotion out of the post-election chaos that Democrats prefer.

How about sex scandals? Mark Foley, that big chicken, resigned immediately after admitting to an inappropriate IM conversation with a Congressional page. Hell, Democrat Gerry Studds not only had real sex with pages, but he went on to serve five more terms. Now, that's what I call chutzpah! You won't see that sort of stick-to-it-iveness in any Republicans, I'd wager.

And what about giving terrorists a fair shake? Patriot Act, Shmatriot Act! The Republicans don't seem to give a rat's ass about terrorists' basic rights. They've invented myths like the Jihadi menace to suppress dissent. Witness the arrests of the Dixie Chicks back in August.

And -- big deal -- if a couple of nukes go off in some major American cities, I'll take my Playstation 3 down to the basement bunker of my secluded Hollywood Hills estate, fire up the generator, and wait it out while some idiot Green Beret-types take it out on the bad guys. The good news about nukes going off? It'll finally demonstrate just how right we Liberals are about the evil Rebublicans. They'll have gotten exactly what they deserve for their imperialistic behavior.

And another thing: the resulting nuclear winter will force an immediate halt to global warming.

Monday, November 20, 2006

Nancy Pelosi on the Consequences of Leaving Iraq

The Democrats' latest slogan of "phased redeployment" is an ill-disguised marketing campaign for retreat in the face of terrorism. But, assuming for a moment that this approach is adopted, what are the consequences?

The American Thinker performs a significant service in describing the ramifications of leaving Iraq before the job is done. The Democrats obviously haven't done the math. A/T sums it up for us. Here's the illustrated version, so simplified even Jack Murtha should get it (although I don't have any spare cash to draw his attention to this post). We thought we'd pose these questions to ostensible House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

* * *

If we leave Iraq, how many of Iraq's approximately 13 million youths will join Al Qaeda or other terrorist groups? One percent is 130,000, half a percent is 65,000. What's your projection, Nancy?

**Erp**

If we leave Iraq, how long until the Iraqi soldiers and police give up on their dream of a free country, Nancy?

**Eeessh**

If we leave Iraq, what will the 300,000 soldiers and police do with their free time once the elected government has collapsed, Nancy?

You hungry? I think it may be time for lunch...

If we leave Iraq, what will happen to the women who now fill important seats in government, Nancy?

The dietetic tortellini with no-fat cheese is to die for!

If we leave Iraq, will any elected government remain, Nancy?

Seriously - I'm getting pretty hungry here.

If we leave Iraq, what will Al Qaeda teach in the schools, Nancy? And what will become of Iraq's schoolgirls?

Is this a trick question?

If we leave Iraq, what will Iraq's weapons researchers -- many of whom are skilled in nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons -- do for a living, Nancy?

Is that a multiple choice question?

If we leave Iraq, will the Shias turn to Iran's Mullahs? And, if so, how will Israel respond, Nancy?